Notice the two plazas ahead, linked by an elevated bridge and anchored by a granite clock tower. Take in how the site unfolds: two main plazas linked by an elevated bridge. The northern plaza deliberately evokes an Italian piazza, anchored by a 40-foot-tall granite clock tower and patterned brick paving; the southern plaza is dominated by a central fountain.
This ensemble was built for $42 million and completed in stages from 1961 to 1964. Its planning and construction were spearheaded by a committee of local corporate leaders and business interests beginning in the late 1950s, though the project ran into financial turmoil in its early stages and was eventually taken over and completed by Hartford-based Travelers Insurance Company. Constitution Plaza was the first substantial urban redevelopment project in Hartford; it replaced a run-down, working-class, ethnic neighborhood known as Front Street, a community that suffered periodic flooding before the construction of riverfront dikes and Interstate 91 and had fallen into serious physical decline, though it was remembered for its large Italian-American population.
Picture Front Street's Italian-American neighborhood, the working-class community this plaza and its fountain replaced.